NHS Cancer Waiting Times Worsen: Nearly All Hospitals Fail to Meet Targets
A BBC News analysis reveals that nearly all NHS hospitals in England are failing to meet key cancer waiting time targets, signaling a deepening crisis in cancer care. The data, covering the period from September 2024 to August 2025, shows widespread delays in diagnosis and treatment, despite government pledges to prioritize cancer services.
The analysis focused on three national targets: the 62-day waiting time between urgent referral and starting treatment, the 31-day waiting time from diagnosis to treatment, and the 28-day waiting time for first treatment after a decision to treat. Performance across all metrics fell short of the national standards.
Efforts are underway to address capacity issues. Some hospitals are adapting schedules to accommodate patient needs, as illustrated by one surgeon who routinely works Saturdays. “He got his diary out,flicked through a couple of pages and gave me a date.I said, that’s a Saturday. The surgeon said, yes, I work Saturdays,” recounted a patient, Paul.
A pioneering initiative is also being rolled out, allowing select chemotherapy patients to administer treatment at home. Josephine Hoskins, who travels between London and Devon for treatment, described the program as “revolutionised things for me,” enabling quicker access to care for those needing more complex interventions. Moving patients like Hoskins to ’at-home chemo’ frees up hospital slots for patients requiring more intensive treatment.
The government maintains it is “resolute to improve” waiting times and is developing a new cancer strategy expected early next year, building on cancer being named a ‘core priority’ in the 10-year NHS plan published in July.A Department of Health spokesperson stated, “Cancer care is a priority as we turn around more than a decade of neglect of our NHS…We’re working at pace to ensure patients get timely diagnoses and treatment – building more community diagnostic centres, offering evening and weekend appointments and spending £70 million on new radiotherapy machines to get patients faster access to the tests, checks and scans they require.”
However, experts caution that notable improvements will be difficult to achieve given current financial constraints. sarah Scobie of the Nuffield Trust health think tank believes, “The reality for the government is that it will be incredibly challenging to make meaningful progress on waiting times when finances are so tight.”
The BBC News analysis is based on official cancer waiting time statistics from NHS England. Trusts were ranked based on their performance against the 62-day waiting time target.
Additional reporting by jess Carr and Muskeen Liddar
